The first move involves giving up Michigan, where the campaign had been playing offense and expanding field operations in Virginia, bad news for the GOP considering the state hasn't voted Democrat since LBJ won it in 1964.
The second involves zeroing in on Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota, an offensive move designed to make Obama defend states Kerry won in 2004 by narrow margins.
Daily Kos weighs in with this breakdown of the difficult and shrinking strategic options McCain has left:
McCain is actually significantly more competitive in Michigan than he is in Wisconsin. Looking at Nate Silver's numbers (probably the best anywhere), he gives Obama a 91 percent chance of winning Wisconsin, projecting a 9-point Obama victory. Michigan is looking better for McCain, at 88 percent. Pennsylvania isn't much different, at 86 percent likely Obama.
With New Mexico and Iowa safely Obama, Obama gets to 266 EVs including the rest of the Kerry states. Throw in any other (competitive) Bush state and Obama gets to 270, and Obama has plenty of targets for those final EVs -- Colorado, Virginia, Nevada, etc. And while New Hampshire hasn't been locked down yet, its 4 EVs wouldn't buy McCain much breathing room.
If it was up to me, I'd pull out of every Kerry state except one, probably Pennsylvania, not to win, but to draw a disproportionate amount of Obama's deep resources. Then I'd focus on defense. It'll be far easier to hold Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Indiana, Missouri and West Virginia, than win any single Kerry state. And McCain can win if he holds the line.
It will indeed be interesting to see if he's able to do this, but playing defense in eight states is no easy task, especially when you still have to pick off one of Obama's safe(r) states like PA, WI or MN.
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